by Linda Kage
I felt strangely elated after that. I still had no idea what was going on with all the other-half talk, but Eva seemed to accept me, so a giddy little smile stole over my face.
I liked the Forbidden Nightclub.
Caroline must’ve felt the same because she leaned in to whisper, “I think we’ve been accepted into the inner circle.” She sounded ecstatic about that idea.
I glanced at her, hoping she was right, when Pick clapped his hands together.
“Time to open. You guys ready for this?” he asked the band. Asher sent him a thumbs-up. Pick glanced toward the waitresses and then the bar, where his brows lowered into a scowl. “Wait. We only have one bartender. Where the hell is Gamble?”
“Right here,” Noel called as he exited the back hall, one hand laced possessively with a blushing Aspen’s.
Pick sniffed. “Oh, how the tables have turned. Wasn’t it you who used to rag on me about always being late to work?”
Noel scowled back at him as he led Aspen forward. “I’m not late. I’ve been here the entire time.”
“And seeing to the extreme comfort of our customers too, it seems.” Setting his gaze on Aspen, he sent her a grin and extended a hand to her. “Hey again, beautiful. Nice to see you tonight.”
Aspen took his hand and he aptly stole her away from Noel, leading her to the bar. “You should watch the show from here. Best seat in the house.” He helped her up until she was sitting on the counter instead of on a barstool. Then he glanced around. “Tinker Bell?”
“Right here, lover.” Eva ran her hand up his back until he turned to her and grinned.
He kissed her on the mouth, lingering before he asked, “Can I help you up?”
She nuzzled her nose against his. “Please do.”
Reese popped up beside Eva and patted the open space beside her. “Caroline. Zoey. Sit with us.”
Caroline hurried over and I trailed behind. It felt like we were getting VIP treatment to sit on top of the bar. After Caroline seated herself beside Reese, I hesitated. It didn’t feel as if I belonged with these people. They were so nice and full of outgoing vivacity. I felt like a great big blah of an outsider.
Pick glanced at me and held out a hand. “Need some help up?”
“Oh!” I gulped, touched by his invitation. No matter how I felt, though, it seemed they were accepting me with a warm welcome. Unable to turn him down, I took his hand and stepped onto the bottom rung before hoisting myself up next to Caroline. “Thank you.”
“Now there’s a sight for sore eyes,” Pick said, glancing appreciatively down the counter at the five of us women. “You ladies sure know how to decorate my nightclub.” He paused in front of Eva to give her another kiss before he wandered toward Asher, who was lingering around the base of the stage and fiddling with a few wires.
One of the waitresses had unlocked the doors. A doorman had appeared somewhere and was letting a line of people in through the entrance. And the place was beginning to fill.
“Any of you ladies thirsty?” Noel asked. “I know the only one here not underage is Aspen, so…can I get you some sodas?”
Caroline groaned and rolled her eyes, while Reese said, “Mason can get my drink.”
“Mine too,” Eva was quick to add.
When Caroline opened her mouth, her brother pointed at her warningly. “No way. You’re just getting soda.”
As she scowled and narrowed her eyes, I spoke up. “I’ll take a Sprite.”
Noel grinned approvingly at me before glancing pointedly at his sister. Her shoulder slumped as she mumbled, “One for me too, I guess.”
We’d just gotten our drinks and were slurping from the straws when Caroline tensed beside me. “Oh God. Oren’s here,” she said under her breath as she leaned in close.
I turned to watch the bouncer let him into the club. A pair of guys immediately jumped on him from behind and greeted him with tackles and laughs.
“I can’t believe he came tonight since he doesn’t have to work.” Poor Caroline. She seemed so tense and on edge as she fiddled with her straw and watched every move he made.
“Maybe he wanted to see the band perform too.”
She didn’t answer, probably hadn’t even heard me.
So I watched him too as he made his way through the crowd. I was a little jealous how personable he was. He seemed to know everyone, girls and guys alike. When one girl he greeted lifted up onto her tiptoes to whisper something into his ear and make him grin, I reached out and grasped Caroline’s hand. She clutched my fingers for dear life.
He finally noticed us when he turned toward the bar, or maybe it was the row of five women sitting on the countertop that caught his attention. But his gaze lingered on Caroline before he ordered a bottled beer from Noel.
Finally, he approached us, swaggering closer. I thought Caroline was going to squeeze my fingers clean off.
“Well, if isn’t a whole row of untouchables,” he mused, glancing down at the five of us as he took a sip. He looked almost sad as his gaze slid over Caroline and kept going.
But Eva cheerfully called, “Ten-Ten, what’re you talking about untouchables? You can come over here and touch me any time you want. If you get too inappropriate, my man’ll just knock your head off.”
“Invitation accepted.” He moved to her. “Hey, Milk Tits. You still breastfeeding those kids of yours?”
She rolled her eyes but perked out her chest. “What do you think?”
“Oh, yeah.” He laughed and rested his arm on her leg as he drank his beer and gazed out into the gathering crowd. He didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave, which didn’t help ease Caroline’s grip on my hand at all.
Yikes. I wondered how long it’d take for permanent damage to set in since there was obviously no blood circulating to my fingertips.
“Zoey? Is that you?”
I glanced around at the call and blinked when I saw Cora.
“Hey!” She climbed up onto the bar beside me and engulfed me in a huge hug, which I stiffly returned. The last time I’d seen her, she’d been threatening me to stay away from her boyfriend. And now...now apparently we were back to being friends.
Bipolar much?
“I didn’t know you were coming tonight,” she called over the growing noise of the club.
“Yeah, I...Caroline invited me,” I said, then I couldn’t help but glance over her shoulder, looking for him.
And there he was.
When I spotted Quinn ordering drinks from Mason further down the bar, my heart skipped a beat. Then I remembered how Cora had chastised me for always looking at him just this morning. I forced my attention to her.
My roommate sent me a knowing little smirk but kept talking as if we were still on good terms. “Isn’t it crazy; we’ve both been so busy this semester, we’ve barely had time to talk. And yet here we end up together at the same club.” When she spotted who was sitting beside me, her gaze cooled. “Oh, hi, Caroline.”
Before Caroline could answer, Ten called, “Wow, they’re just letting anyone in tonight, aren’t they?”
Cora scowled right back. “I wasn’t talking to you, dick breath.”
“Hey, hey, hey,” Eva cut in, petting Ten soothingly on top of his head. “No one calls our Ten-Ten a dick breath but me.”
“So, ha.” Ten sneered at her. “Take that, whore.”
Cora opened her mouth to spit something back, but Quinn showed up with two glasses, diffusing the tension in the air. He carried something pink with fruit floating in it and another cup that looked exactly like what I was drinking.
“Hi, Quinn,” Caroline greeted, making me blush because I probably should’ve said hello too instead of just ogling him like a moron.
He glanced at her in surprise. “Oh! Hi.” Then his gaze moved on to Reese and Eva before swerving back to Caroline’s other side where I sat. When he found me, his scanning stopped. “Hi,” he called again. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”
I shrugged. “Carolin
e,” was all I had to say in explanation as I tipped my head her way.
He smiled as if he understood. “I had to coax Cora into coming too, so I could watch Asher’s first performance.”
As he handed Cora the pink drink, Eva opened her arms to him. “Quinn! My hero. Come give me some sweetness, you handsome thing.”
Quinn ducked his face slightly but obliged, stepping onto the first rung of the stool in front of her so he could reach her. She enveloped his large frame and then smacked a kiss to his cheek.
Sneering, Cora leaned into me. “He only puts up with that bitch because she’s doing his boss.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. It seemed like Quinn was genuinely fond of Eva. I remembered the gunshot wound he had on his arm from saving her life. He had to like her, even if it was just a little. When he pulled away, he smiled one last time and nodded before finding his way back to Cora’s side.
“So which one is this Asher guy?” Cora asked, possessively curling her arms around his shoulders from behind.
“He’s the lead singer.” Quinn pointed as the band took stage.
Wrapping her legs around his chest next, Cora rested her chin on top of his head and checked out Asher. “He’s cute,’ she finally decided right before her fingers trailed down the front of Quinn’s chest. “But not as cute as you.”
I thought I was going to be sick so I quickly took a drink of my Sprite, only to realize Caroline’s fingers were wiggling in mine.
Oops. I guess I’d been the one squeezing too hard this time.
Beginning the evening’s events, Asher stepped to the microphone and introduced Non-Castrato. Caroline tapped her hand on my leg, showing me just how excited she was. Pick appeared in front of us to boot Ten aside so he could rest his arm on Eva’s leg. So Ten moved down the line and ended up closer to Caroline, Cora, Quinn and me.
“For our first song, we’re going to do something a little different. We’ve already gotten our first request from a very persistent fellow. So we’re going to cover this song for his woman.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Caroline said with a smile.
“Pick, please don’t tell me you made them play our song?” Eva demanded as the drumbeat counted off.
“No,” Pick muttered, “but now I’m pissed at whoever did, because that was a damn good idea.”
As the music began, I realized they were playing Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” but they’d layered a little heavier of a rock beat to it.
“Oh, this is Aspen’s favorite song,” Caroline said, just before we heard a gasp from the end of the line, as Noel snagged his girlfriend around the waist before pulling her back off the bar until she was on the ground with him.
They hugged each other and kissed, and Asher began to sing. His voice was perfect, not like Adele’s but something just as amazing and raspy that fit the heavier beat.
Aspen and Noel began to dance with each other, and Caroline’s eyes watered as she covered her mouth. “That is so freaking sweet. I had no idea my brother was such a romantic.”
“Disgusting, isn’t it?” Ten asked.
Caroline sniffed and sent him a glare, bumping his shoulder with her knee.
My glaze slid unwillingly to Quinn. His lips had tipped up in a smile as he watched Noel and Aspen. Then, as if he felt my stare, he looked up. Instead of frowning at me for staring, his smile only widened. Then he returned his attention to the main couple.
But my chest still pounded from that half of a second we’d shared.
I shook my head. I was so pathetic. I couldn’t believe I had such a raging crush on my roommate’s boyfriend. Bad enough that Cora even knew about it, now I was longing for stolen little glances that probably meant nothing to him.
No wonder Cora had been so nasty and unfriendly to me lately. She probably thought I was actually going to try to steal him.
I forced my attention back to Noel and Aspen just as the song drew to a close. Noel let go of Aspen to kneel down in front of her and pull a ring from his pocket.
Caroline gasped. “Oh my God. Oh my God!”
Aspen took a step back, and her mouth fell open as tears filled her eyes.
I couldn’t hear the actual proposal from where I sat, but I could tell what her response was when she leapt at him, hugging him and kissing him.
“Dude,” Ten spoke up. “I can’t believe you’re freaking proposing to a break-up song.”
“Shut up,” Caroline hissed, slapping his shoulder. “Before I punch you in the nuts.”
“What?” He glanced at her in shock before he motioned to Noel and Aspen, who were still kissing. “I’m just saying...that can’t be good luck.”
“It’s her favorite song. Who cares what the lyrics say?”
Ten snorted. “Obviously no one.” He turned away, taking a huge gulp of his beer, and focused his attention on Asher singing.
I watched the tense set of his shoulders and the tormented expression on Caroline’s face before glancing away to focus back on Noel and Aspen. But, yeah, they were still connected at the mouth.
“Wow.” I turned away from the bar completely to face outward. “They’re really going at it.”
Next to me, Cora laughed. “Oh, Zoey. You poor innocent little virgin. Look at your blush.”
To my mortification, she said it loud enough that all the Forbidden people could no doubt hear her. Just wanting to sink into a hole and die, I continued to blush as she went on. “We totally need to get you some experience. Quinn, baby, let’s set Zoey up with one of your single friends. We could do a double date.”
Quinn froze and sent her a look that told her going on a double date with me was the last thing he wanted to do. It was the last thing I wanted to do, too. I didn’t want to see him and Cora hanging all over each other any more than necessary, much less purposely trap myself into a front row seat of watching it all night long. But knowing Quinn didn’t want to spend an evening with me either, hurt.
Why didn’t he want to hang out with me?
I opened my mouth to tell Cora there was no way I’d go on a double date with her and Quinn—blind dates equaled hell in my book—when Ten suddenly turned to us.
“I’ll do it.”
Everyone stopped drinking whatever they were drinking and gaped at him. Caroline even choked on hers.
He shrugged, taking in all the expressions focused on him. “What?”
“Since when do you double date?” Quinn asked.
“Since now, I guess.” Glancing at me, he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “What do you say, Blondie? It could be fun.”
I glanced toward Caroline. Her expression was surprisingly blank. She was watching the band as if she wasn’t listening in on every word we said.
“Uh...”
I couldn’t say yes. I didn’t want to say yes. But what if Cora kept pressuring me until she found someone else, someone I didn’t know. Ten was the antithesis of any guy I would consider dating, but for some reason I trusted him, and I somehow knew he didn’t want to go out with me because he was interested in me. He had some kind of agenda. And whatever it was, I’d rather take a chance on him and his ulterior motive than someone else.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled. “I guess.”
I guess.
She’d said I guess.
Why in the world had she said I guess?
Did she like Ten? I could tell Caroline was into him, but I’d never caught that vibe from Zoey. So why would she ever agree to go out with him? And what’s more, why had he asked her to? Ten didn’t do the dating thing. He was more of a one-night stand kind of guy.
Zoey was part of our group too. Why would he risk strife within the group to go out with her? Strife with me?
I was irritable as I dressed for the bar that evening, not to work but to go out...on a double freaking date.
“’Bout ready yet, princess?” Ten appeared in my opened door and caught my eye in the mirror before he stepped inside and dropped onto my bed, rumpling the bedsp
read.
“Almost.” Tugging at the cuffs of my shirt, I found my shoes in the doorway to my closet and pushed my feet into them with probably a bit too much force.
I turned to face my roommate, who looked as if he could just close his eyes and sleep on my mattress for the rest of the night. Wanting to shove him off, I muttered, “Let’s get this over with.”
Ten stopped swinging his foot and blinked up at me. “Damn, Hammy. You sound about as enthusiastic about tonight as I feel.”
Unable to keep my thoughts bottled a second longer, I said, “If you didn’t want to go, then why did you volunteer?”
“Finally!” Ten cheered, spreading his arms wide as he bounded off the bed. “The lecture. I’ve been waiting for this little talk since the moment your woman orchestrated this whole fucking night.”
“My woman didn’t—” I clenched my teeth and scowled at him, following him from the room as he left. “What little talk?” I growled.
“The one where you warn me away from Blondie and tell me to keep my hands to myself or you’ll break them off at the wrists.”
Dang it. How did he know I was dying to give him that very lecture? I shook my head though, refusing to admit it. “Why would I tell you that?”
Ten paused, glanced back at me, and then stepped closer. “Because you can’t handle the idea of anyone putting his hands on her, that’s why.”
I rolled my eyes, but inside, my stomach burned. Listening to him say that made me want to curl my hands into fists and punch something. Punch him. Because what he said was true.
This was bad. This was so bad.
My roommate gave a sudden grin before he patted my shoulder in reassurance. “Don’t worry, bud. I feel the same way.”
With that, he turned around and strolled off. I blinked. He felt the same way? He wanted to murder anyone who even thought about touching Zoey? He...wait. Did this mean he liked her?
What about Caroline? I thought he had a thing for Caroline. Why couldn’t he just keep his sights set on Caroline?
“What?” I asked, hurrying after him.
He laughed and opened the front door of the apartment, stepping aside to let me exit first. I didn’t. I just stared at him.